St. Bernard Parish hospital site decision being weighed

Ellis Lucia/The Times-Picayune archiveChalmette Medical Center was swamped by Hurricane Katrina. It was photographed in November 2006.

After a year of political wrangling over who would control construction of a new St. Bernard Parish hospital, board members are facing a crucial decision in the next month about where to build the planned 40-bed facility.

In the more than four years since Hurricane Katrina swamped the former Chalmette Medical Center, St. Bernard residents have been without a hospital. Over the past year the parish's hospital board has chosen a management group to eventually run the hospital and hired an architecture firm to draw up designs.

The plan is still to complete the hospital by the end of 2011, but the obvious question - Where will it be built? - has not yet been answered.

Nearly a year ago, a parish nonprofit group offered to donate an 11.5-acre tract across from the Chalmette Battlefield, and contractors completed a required environmental assessment on the vacant land. But the board has not officially accepted the donation from the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, and in recent months has begun exploring an alternative site at a now-closed church property owned by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Parish Hospital Board Chairman Wayne Landry, who is also a parish councilman, said a decision on the land must be made in the first few weeks of January to avoid any delays in the construction timetable.

"To me it's real simple: If that other piece of land can work out within the next week or two, then I think it's our responsibility to look and see if that's a better deal overall," Landry said. "It's incumbent upon us to make sure we're spending the money in the best way possible...It's an attractive alternative, and it will not be delaying the project at all to explore this possibility."

The alternate site is the former Prince of Peace Catholic Church on Jean Lafitte Parkway in Chalmette. The idea was first mentioned in the fall, and the Archdiocese of New Orleans recently sent a letter to Landry and Parish President Craig Taffaro about St. Bernard's use of the site.

In the letter, Archbishop Gregory Aymond had several stipulations about the property and requested more specific information about the size and makeup of the hospital.

Originally the archdiocese had discussed using the Prince of Peace site to house a local office for the Arc of Greater New Orleans, a nonprofit group for the mentally disabled. The letter states that St. Bernard officials would need to find another location for that group, and that the archdiocese also would need "sufficient funds in advance" to build a new adoration chapel for the Our Lady of Prompt Succor church, also in Chalmette.

Landry pointed to several potential advantages for the Prince of Peace site, including what he says could be savings of $2 million to $3 million in infrastructure costs since the site already has a parking lot and utilities. The parish also would not have to pay to fill the site, he said, since it is on higher ground than the Meraux land.

But Hospital Board member Daniel Dysart said it is too late in the game to search for alternatives to the Meraux Foundation land.

"This isn't like we're negotiating the Louisiana Purchase here," Dysart said. "It's a donation of the property, and it should have been done months ago."

Dysart was chairman of the hospital board for a year-and-a-half until this summer, when Landry and Parish Councilman George Cavignac were voted in as chairman and vice chairman.Since then, the board has chosen the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System as the management group for the planned hospital. The Franciscans have operated a health center in St. Bernard since Hurricane Katrina.

A required six-month environmental assessment has already been conducted on the Meraux Foundation land, although there are still some wetlands permitting issues that could pose additional delays before construction. The six-month environmental review would have to be done on any new site, said Kendall Magee, a grant consultant hired by the state to facilitate the federal community development block grant money St. Bernard will use to build the hospital.

It's also possible that the Hospital Board could be required to pay for the additional review at Prince of Peace out of its own pockets, since the federal money was already used to pay for the first assessment on the Meraux Foundation land.

Landry said the board is awaiting final blueprints this month on the hospital design. Once a site is chosen, architects would begin more specific site plans and layouts for the buildings.